Rabat- About 80 % of Moroccans say legalizing cannabis for therapeutic, cosmetic or industrial use will have a positive impact on their society.
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) surveyed 1,054 individuals aged 18-69 years on legalizing cannabis as part of its 2020 report on Morocco’s socio-economic situation in the past year.
The survey aims to identify Moroccan citizens’ attitudes and perceptions towards cannabis and determine the perceived impacts of the legalization of the use of cannabis for therapeutic and industrial purposes.
86% of those surveyed said that legalizing cannabis would contribute to economic development, while 61% percent argued that areas where cannabis is cultivated should be supported with public investment in infrastructure, including the construction of roads, hospitals, schools, etc.
On the other hand, the survey highlighted that 47% believe cannabis to have a negative impact on the environment, while 77% of these said its consumption is harmful or unhealthy.
91% of the participants in CESE’s survey added that cultivation of cannabis is the only source of income for families working to produce cannabis, mainly in the Rif region in northern Morocco, where growing cannabis has long been tolerated.
94% of the surveyed consider cannabis to be historically rooted in Morocco, and 79% believe that its cultivation should be legalized.
The debate about the legalization of cannabis has been one of the most divisive topics in Morocco in the past year. The Moroccan government approved the bill to legalize medicinal cannabis for export on March 11 of this year, making Morocco the 2nd MENA country to do so after Lebanon in 2020.
As the Cannabis bill passed the Moroccan parliament under the watch of the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), the party’s ulta-conservative wings decried the move and described it as un-Moroccan and un-Islamic.
Cannabis has been cultivated in Morocco for centuries, and in 2003 it covered an area of 134,000 hectares (more than 330,000 acres), mostly in the northern Rif region. Cultivated lands have since been reduced in size by the government to 47,000 hectares (about 116,000 acres) as of 2014, according to official figures.
In December 2020, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs removed cannabis resin from the list of “most dangerous drugs.” Morocco was among the countries that voted for the proposition.
According to a United Nations Office for Drugs’ Control (UNODC) report, Morocco was also the world’s largest producer of cannabis resin in 2017.
